Brightest Young Things

Dilapidated buildings. Roads strewn with rubble. Harrowing acts of violence. Rampant drug abuse. Widespread poverty.

As first-time director Celine Danhier’s compelling new documentary “Blank City” reminds us, New York City in the mid-to-late 70s was dirty, dangerous and destitute. During one scene in the film, Danhier drives the point home by showing a particularly gruesome black and white photograph overtop Thurston Moore’s observation that, “It looked like somebody dropped a bomb on the lower East Side.” Indeed it did.

And yet, out of these bleak conditions came a unique counter-cultural movement––one that gleefully chafed against the establishment and was defined by interdisciplinary creativity and experimentation, a take-no-prisoners DIY ethos, and a receptiveness to new ideas.

Post-punk aficionados may be familiar with many of the key players of the No Wave music scene (Mars, DNA, the Contortions, Teenage Jesus & the Jerks) but how many know about the scene’s strong ties to the city’s independent film community? Indeed, as Blank City shows us, no wave provocateurs such as Lydia Lunch and James Chance were just as quick to jump in front of the camera as they were on stage before a contentious live audience.

And while resources may have been limited, filmmaking was nonetheless de rigeur for these artists and participants. Hell, even Debbie Harry got into the act. One of the key take-aways from Blank City is how easy and uncomplicated it was during the time to make movies: screw the permits and paperwork---just get some friends together, shoot something on a super 8 camera, splice it together and have it screened almost immediately at Max’s Kansas City.

And though Danier goes to great lengths to show the level of ambition involved was nearly always limited, the movement ultimately served as a galvanizing force to further the cause for U.S. independent filmmaking, helping to boost the careers of Jim Jarmusch and Steve Buscemi.

What I found most interesting about Blank City is the film’s implicit suggestion that the warzone environment of NYC itself was just as much a creative catalyst as the ideas and impulses that germinated from the filmmakers. Not surprisingly, a lot of the films were extreme, particularly those from the Cinema of Transgression. Artists and performers would push every conceivable boundary, thrusting back the extremity of their daily living conditions via their creative medium of choice.

Had the Lower East Side in the late 70s been closer to the post-Giuliani version, chances are pretty good that this peculiar counter-cultural movement wouldn’t have come to pass. Thankfully, no matter how scrubbed up and soulless NYC becomes, we'll always have Blank City to remind us that the city’s scuzzy, flotsam-riddled past brought its own unique cultural contributions.